


Knocked Up

by SassyUnicorn7



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Romantic Fluff, Tiny bit of Angst, not much though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-09-05 02:39:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16802053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyUnicorn7/pseuds/SassyUnicorn7
Summary: It wasn’t a question—Weiss knew she was pregnant.  She’d never craved anything other than the finest cuisine the world-renowned chefs of the Schnee estate had to offer.  Her refined palate wouldn’t stand for much else.  But as of late, all she wanted was anything smothered in gravy and topped with pickles.  And pastrami.  God, did she crave pastrami!





	1. Disowned

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AntonSlavik020](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntonSlavik020/gifts).



> Special shoutout to Anton for commissioning me again! You're the reason I was able to pay rent this week, so thank you, buddy! (TT__TT)

It wasn’t a question—Weiss knew she was pregnant. She’d never craved anything other than the finest cuisine the world-renowned chefs of the Schnee estate had to offer. Her refined palate wouldn’t stand for much else. But as of late, all she wanted was anything smothered in gravy and topped with pickles. And pastrami. God, did she crave pastrami!

If her change in appetite wasn’t enough evidence, the small protruding bump just below her navel most certainly was.

“It’s from all the weird junk you’ve been eating lately,” she’d try to convince herself. She was about to hyperventilate at the thought of bearing a child. “You just need to cut calories and exercise a little more, that’s all.”

If only that had been all… The third clue was how often she’d been throwing up. Weiss didn’t have the most powerful immune system, but she could tell the difference between a stomach bug and…

“Morning sickness,” she groaned while holding onto the porcelain seat of her toilet. She wiped the slobber from her chin and fought back the tears burning the corners of her eyes.

The fourth and final clue was the seventeen pregnancy tests she’d single-handedly sold a convenience store out of. “School project,” she explained with a nervous laugh when the cashier raised his eyebrow at her purchases. If it really had been for a school project, she would’ve gotten an A plus, with an emphasis on the _plus._ All seventeen tests turned out positive.

There was no question. She was pregnant.

Her father didn’t take the news very well. She hid it from him for the better half of her second trimester, but when Jacques Schnee confronted his daughter about why she’d elected to wear something other than the form-fitting dress he’d bought her specifically for a formal affair, she’d broken down into the tears she’d been holding back for months and told him the truth in between sobs. After making a bit of a scene at the party, Jacques dragged Weiss into the privacy of his study and demanded she leave the estate lest she have the unborn child ripped straight out of her with or without her consent.

“What’s the difference between a pregnant lady and and a lightbulb?” her little shit of a brother had asked from his cocky position in her doorway as he watched Weiss toss her belongings in a suitcase. “You can’t unscrew a pregnant lady,” he answered with a wry smile when it was clear Weiss wasn’t in the mood for jokes.

“Go. Away. Whitley,” Weiss said, trying her best to refrain from crying any more than she already had. She knew how much joy her dilemma brought her twisted brother, and she did _not_ want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her so miserable.

“Shall I pull the car around for you, miss?” the Schnee estate’s head butler, Klein had inquired upon seeing Weiss stride down the main foyer’s staircase. He hastened his walk to match hers, but still had trouble keeping up. He was a good foot shorter, after all.

“I don’t think father will approve of that,” Weiss replied, making a beeline for the front door. “He made it pretty clear I’m officially cut off. From everything. I think that includes joyrides in the Escalade.”

Klein stopped dead in his tracks, completely aghast. “You can’t be serious! Surely you’re blowing things out of proportion…”

Weiss could understand Klein’s confusion. This wasn’t the first time she’d fought with her father. It was the first time she’d ever seen his face get so purple and felt his words cut so deeply.

“Stupid hormones…” Weiss muttered as she reached for the gilded handle of the oaken door.

“Please, miss! I beg of you. It’s pouring outside. Where will you go?” Klein asked, chasing after her to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Anywhere,” Weiss answered resolutely, yanking the door open and crossing over the threshold before just as quickly turning around and giving Klein a polite bow of her head. “I’m sorry, Klein,” she apologized just before the door closed.

It was nine o’clock on a Tuesday night. Weiss was with child yet without transportation. Or money. Or anything really. And it was raining. Hard.

“Yep. I’m pretty sure this is what rock bottom looks like,” Weiss said with a sigh. Lifting her foot a little higher than necessary, she took her first step out from under the awning of the only place she’d ever called home and into the torrential downpour. Surprisingly, it felt… nice. Cleansing in a way. The further her waterlogged feet took her, the more she realized what she was really experiencing. This was more than being disowned or cut off… this was…

Freedom.

And there was only one person Weiss wanted to share that freedom with.

“Hi, Jaune,” Weiss meekly greeted when her boyfriend opened the door to his one-bedroom apartment.

“Jesus, Weiss! You’re soaked to the bone! Get in here!” Jaune said, affectionately putting an arm around his girlfriend’s slumped shoulders and ushering her inside.

It wasn’t the biggest or most lavish apartment, but it had a certain charm to it. The kitchen was open to the living room, which also served as the dining room since Jaune typically ate at the wooden coffee table in front of his couch. The most expensive thing he owned was a high-definition television set. That bad boy was eighty-five inches wide and had the kind of picture quality that was just as good if not better than a 3-D movie—but without the funky glasses. When Weiss had asked him why he’d waste so much money on a TV as opposed to a car or his education, Jaune’s reply had been, _“Because I can’t hook my Nintendo Switch up to any of those!”_ Priorities.

The only thing more important to Jaune than gaming, though, was Weiss. That’s why he’d forfeited his League of Legends match in favor of finding every blanket in his apartment and wrapping them around his sodden girlfriend.

“I think that’s enough,” Weiss said as her fingers closed around the ninth blanket he draped over her. She was comfortably seated on the centermost cushion of his couch with a piping hot cup of decaffeinated coffee placed in front of her, watching her frantic boyfriend scramble about in search of more layers to add to the lasagna his girlfriend was becoming. “It’s not that cold outside, so it wasn’t as bad as you might think.”

“Weiss, it’s ten o’clock at night. What on earth provoked you to go for a leisurely stroll during a downpour like this?” Jaune demanded. _“In your condition!”_ he added with a little more incredulity painting his tone. His eyes glanced down to her stomach before snapping back up to her face. “You need to be more careful.”

“Coming here tonight was the best thing I could’ve done for our baby,” Weiss assured him.

Jaune furrowed his brow in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Weiss leaned forward to pick up her coffee mug, taking a hearty gulp before saying, “My father knows…”

It was Jaune’s turn to gulp, just without the help of any coffee. “He… knows? Like _knows_ knows? About us?”

“Yes, Jaune! What else could I have meant?” Weiss snapped with an exasperated roll of her eyes.

“Sorry! Your’e right… I just… Can’t believe it. I’ve been your dirty little secret since… Well, since forever,” Jaune said. “But we knew this day would come, didn’t we? We talked about it when we first found out you were… expecting…”

Weiss gravely nodded, her expression softening into something much sadder. “We did,” she agreed. “I just didn’t expect him to overreact like that. It was worse than the worse case scenario we imagined. Jaune, he said if I stayed he would literally _force_ me to have an abortion.”

Jaune’s jaw tightened and heartbeat later he was at Weiss’s side, adding his own warmth to the blankets surrounding her. “Weiss, I’m so sorry,” he said, offering a one-armed hug that was surprisingly strong and a swift kiss to her blanket-covered head. “I’m so sorry…”

Weiss put her coffee down so she could properly return Jaune’s embrace, earning her his other arm for the effort. “I’m not,” she told him.

Jaune pulled away, keeping his hands on her elbows as he fixed her with a quizzical look. “You’re not?” he repeated.

“I’ve had a lot of time to come to terms with this baby,” Weiss explained. “There’s always been a part of me that wanted to be a mother, ever since I was little. I didn’t know when or where it would happen—or who it would happen with, for that matter—but I knew I wanted to love the father, and I absolutely, full-heartedly, one-hundred percent do. Because if I loved the father, then chances are he would love me back… and would most likely love our children just as much if not more. And more than anything, I want my children to be loved… because having a parent who doesn’t love you…” Tears filled her icy blue eyes, but she fought them with the sweetest smile she could muster. “It kinda sucks,” she said, the smile only serving to squeeze the water from her eyes and make it trickle down her cheeks.

As if he’d been waiting for an opportunity to do it, Jaune ran his hand up her arm and drew Weiss into a kiss that sent an amazing warmth—a warmth unlike anything the blankets could provide—sweeping through her. Weiss melted into the kiss, craving Jaune’s touch more than she had any food for the past five months. Without bothering to hide her hunger, she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss, latching onto his face so tightly her fingernails left little red crescents in their wake.

Before they took it too far, Jaune pulled back, gasping for air. “And you wonder… how I got you pregnant…” he said with a breathy laugh. “You get so passionate sometimes…”

“You call _that_ passionate? Anyway, you kissed me,” Weiss pointed out, though she couldn’t stop herself from glancing down at his lips as she considered instigating a kiss of her own—one that would blow that last little smooch out of the water and actually warrant the word _passionate._

“I did,” Jaune admitted. “How could I not after everything you just said? I knew I loved you before this baby even existed, and I know I’ll love both of you more and more with each passing day. We don’t need your father’s approval. You can stay here, with me. That’s how it should be anyway.”

Weiss shook her head. “I don’t have a job…”

“We’ll find you something! There’s a bakery around the corner that had a hiring sign out front the other day. How good are you in the kitchen?” Jaune asked with an optimistic light to his eyes.

Weiss fixed him with a stare that spoke volumes more than any answer she could’ve verbalized.

“Uh… right. I guess I remember that one date night you tried to make dinner… and we wound up with charcoal… eh heh,” Jaune recalled with a nervous laugh. “We don’t have to make any decisions tonight. A lot’s happened and I’m sure you’re tired. We’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Weiss had to hand it to him—her boyfriend certainly knew what to say to make typhoons seem like scattered showers.

“We should probably get you out of those wet clothes before you get pneumonia,” he added.

Weiss was off the couch a second later, peeling off all nine blankets along with her soggy ensemble. “I was wondering when you were going to try getting me out of my clothes,” she said with a sexy smirk as her blouse dropped to the floor. She closed the distance between them with two slow, seductive steps, making sure to sway her hips as much as possible. Weiss might’ve had a belly on her, but she was nothing short of mesmerizing to Jaune. She could tell from the way his breath hitched when she curled her finger in a lock of hair near his nape that he was already hers to do with as she pleased.

“I can’t believe you have the energy for this after everything you’ve been through tonight,” he said in disbelief, his hands coming to rest on her waist.

“What can I say? You just bring out the _passionate_ side of me,” she teased, leaning in to nibble at his neck.

Jaune sighed and lowered his lips to meet hers. Hot showers weren’t the only way to warm her up, he supposed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Weiss always slept more soundly with Jaune at her side. In fact, she would’ve probably enjoyed the most peaceful sleep she’d had in weeks had someone not come knocking at his door at one o’clock in the morning.

“Who the hell…?” Jaune grumbled, his voice husky from sleep as he begrudgingly untangled his girlfriend’s arms from around his torso and stumbled out of bed. He blindly searched the floor of his darkened bedroom for a semi-clean shirt so he could greet his uninvited guest wearing more than just his boxers—not that they deserved such courtesy. Anyone who came calling at such a late hour should’ve been fair game for whatever nudity Jaune felt like exhibiting.

The knocks grew louder and more impatient.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming,” Jaune muttered as he tugged his head through his favorite Pumpkin Pete hoodie. His footsteps fell heavy against the wooden floor as he trudged his way to the front of his apartment, being sure to take his sweet-ass time despite the clear urgency of the knocking.

In the midst of another string of demanding raps, Jaune unbolted the door with a few tense jerks of his hand and swung it open. They agitation that had been fueling him, however, quickly flushed from his face upon recognizing the dignified, white-haired woman standing before him.

“Winter. Wh-what a surprise,” he stuttered, a bit slack-jawed.

“Yes. I suppose it is rather astonishing seeing as how I’ve never sought out your place of residence before,” Winter said in that tone that always made Jaune feel like he was in the military and she was his commander.

“I would ask what you’re doing here at such a ridiculous hour, but I kind of have an idea,” Jaune said, suddenly very aware of how wide open the door was. He slowly closed it just enough so that only he could fit between the narrow space.

Winter raised an eyebrow at the implications of such a small yet significant action. “Am I to assume you wish me to leave?” she asked. She sounded half mocking, half threatening, but Jaune was fully in protective mode and fully intended to stand his ground.

“Depends,” Jaune replied, raising his elbow above his head to rest it on the corner of the door. “Am I to assume you want to abort my baby?”

Winter’s demeanor hardened all the way from her stance to her eyes as they locked with Jaune’s in a staring contest neither of them showed signs of losing.

“I would like to speak with my sister,” Winter said curtly.

“She’s kind of asleep. You know? Because it’s one o’clock in the fucking morning,” Jaune said, regaining a spark of his earlier resentment from the reminder.

“I realize it’s not the most suitable hour, but I only just received news of my sister’s departure,” Winter explained, maintaining her ever-so-serious tone and heart-piercing gaze.

 _“Departure?”_ Jaune repeated with a laugh. “She was practically disowned! In fact, you could be in danger of the same fate just by being here! Your dear old dad strikes me as being fairly meticulous when it comes to grudges.”

“You’re not wrong about that,” Winter admitted, though it seemed like she was talking more to herself than to Jaune. “But, thankfully, I’m nothing like my father. I came here out of concern.”

Jaune studied Winter’s face to see if he could detect any shred of deceit. “The type of concern that wants to convince Weiss to give up our child in favor of returning home? Or the kind of concern that’s genuine concern and actually cares about what Weiss wants?” he pressed.

Winter narrowed her eyes. “The type of concern that doesn’t concern you,” she said flatly.

“Jaune, that’s enough. Please let her in,” came Weiss’s soft voice from just over his shoulder.

He turned to face her, consenting to her request the moment he saw the angelic smile she was both thanking and beseeching him with.

No sooner had Winter been granted entry was Weiss throwing her arms around her and kissing her cheek.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Weiss cried as tears of joy streamed down her face.

Winter relaxed as much as her rigid posture would allow and closed her eyes while affectionately stroking her sister’s long white hair. “I came as soon as I heard,” Winter told her in a soothing voice Jaune didn’t think her capable of.

“How’d you know I’d come here, though? I could’ve gone anywhere,” Weiss said.

Jaune had never seen the Ice Queen that was Winter Schnee smile, but that all changed when she pulled away to look Weiss in the eyes and bared the better portion of her teeth. In all honesty, it kind of creeped him out.

“Give me a little credit, Weiss,” Winter said. “I may not always be around, but I know you well enough to know what you’re most likely thinking. And nine times out of ten, it usually involves tall, blonde, and gangly.”

 _“Gangly?”_ Jaune echoed, half tempted to tear off his hoodie and show Winter just how un-gangly his six-pack was.

“Father’s behavior was nothing short of abhorrent,” Winter said with a disapproving harshness to her words. “I realize he thinks what he’s doing is out of love as he believes you deserve better…” She spared Jaune a sidelong glance to insinuate he was the thing that could be _better._ “But that’s no reason to overreact the way he did. I’ll try talking to him first thing in the morning and have you back at the estate before the day is up. If I can—”

“I don’t want to go back,” Weiss interrupted.

Winter blinked in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

“I said I don’t want to go back,” Weiss enunciated. “For the first time in my life, I’m completely free of him. I don’t have to rely on his money or support, and as a result I don’t have to follow his stupid rules. I finally have a chance to stand on my own two feet, so I’d like to give it a try and see how far I can go… I have zero intentions of returning even if he welcomes me back with open arms.”

“Yeah. Tell Jackass Schnee to stick that in his pipe and smoke it,” Jaune said, folding his arms and shifting all of his weight to one side in a stance that was as cocky as his tone, though Winter completely brushed him off.

“Weiss, don’t be silly. How will you make money?” Winter asked.

“I’ll get a job,” Weiss answered plainly.

“What kind of job?” Winter challenged.

“Interior decorating? Barista? Or I was even thinking about singing professionally. They were looking for entertainers at that cabaret bar we went to a few weeks back,” Weiss said, looking to Jaune.

“Oh, yeah! You’d be great at that!” he said with more enthusiasm for the idea than even Weiss had.

“That’s the beauty of it, honestly,” Weiss said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I can do whatever I want. Complete. Freedom.”

Winter regarded her sister with an expression that was somewhere between impressed and dismayed. “Are you certain this is what you truly wish?” she asked.

Weiss placed her hands on the silken nightgown covering her protruding belly and looked down as she rubbed gentle circles with her palms. “I’m positive,” she said without a hint of hesitation. “I want to raise this baby with Jaune. And I want to do it my way.” She looked up and met Jaune’s eyes before adding. “I mean _our_ way.”

Winter grunted in a way that Jaune thought sounded approving, but wasn’t sure until she said, “I see. In that case, I suppose there’s only one thing left to do.”

Weiss and Jaune exchanged glances before Winter continued.

“Throw you a proper baby shower,” she revealed as if her answer was obvious.

Weiss laughed. “I haven’t even come up with a name, much less ideas for a baby shower,” she admitted.

Although he’d never say it, Jaune knew that was mostly because she’d been devoting the better half of her pregnancy to hiding and denying it. It was music to his ears to hear her being so open and accepting of the baby now. Maybe one day she’d be just as open about their relationship—but this wasn’t the time for that, especially not with Winter and her disapproving looks present.

“You don’t plan your _own_ baby shower. People do it for you,” Winter explained. “And I just so happen to know the best people. This shall be the baby shower of the millennium, just you wait and see!” she declared.

With a few more hugs and words of encouragement, Winter took her leave, though only after promising to return at a more reasonable hour to accompany Weiss on a little job-hunting adventure.

By the time they crawled back in bed, Jaune was wide awake and thinking about the things he usually pushed to the nethermost regions of his mind lest he start a fight with the person he hated fighting with the most.

“Weiss,” Jaune began, once he realized he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he got a few things off his chest.

“Hmm?” she hummed groggily, rolling into him and nuzzling his neck with her nose.

“Now that your dad knows about me—about _us—_ do you think maybe we can tell other people? I mean, besides your friends.”

Weiss was suddenly much more awake, eyes wide and looking up at Jaune. “Who else do you want to tell?”

“No one in particular I guess,” Jaune said, a bit of anxiousness seeping through. “I just thought it’d be nice to do stuff… like hold your hand when we’re walking through a park. Or to kiss you just because, even if other people can see us.”

Although they’d been together for years, Weiss had always been against getting too touchy-feely in public. Being one of the most powerful men in town meant Jaques Schnee had eyes and ears everywhere—even places one would think were completely safe. Although the self-restraint they endured tended to make their more intimate moments all the more heated and needed, Jaune would be lying if he said he was perfectly content being a dirty little secret.

“We could give it a try,” Weiss finally said after what seemed like an eternity to Jaune. “But I’m not going to force anything. Only if it comes naturally.”

“Naturally,” Jaune agreed, his fingers tracing various shapes up and down her arm. “I know what you went through today was tough, but I seriously think leaving that house was the best thing that could’ve happened to you.”

“Technically, it’s a mansion,” Weiss corrected.

Jaune snorted with laughter. “Technically, you just love to argue with me,” he teased.

“Technically, I think you enjoy it,” Weiss countered.

“Technically, I prefer making love, not war.”

“Technically, that’s what got us in this mess in the first place.”

“Technically, this mess is going to turn into the best mistake of your life,” Jaune  
said.

Weiss responded by lifting her head and kissing him this time. “Technically,” she agreed.


	2. One Big Baby Shower

Apparently Winter wasn’t kidding when she told them that she intended to make her little sister’s baby shower the baby shower of the millennium. She’d gone through the trouble of renting out the largest reception hall in town and hired an entire team of decorators. Flowers and fairy lights filled the space, silver streamers hung from all eight crystal chandeliers, silk curtains flowed from every window, tables were covered with lacy white cloths that looked to have been sewn by hand, and their plush chair counterparts were dressed in matching white covers complete with big blue bows on their backs.

“This is supposed to be a baby shower, not a wedding,” Weiss muttered out of the side of her mouth upon entering the hall. She was accompanied by her best friends, Ruby, Blake, and Yang—all of whom seemed just as awestruck if not more so than the guest of honor.

“Are you taking notes, Yang? This is the standard my baby shower has to be,” Ruby said, looking to her sister.

Yang replied with a wry laugh. “I don’t know what’s funnier; the fact that you think I’d actually throw you a shindig like this, or the fact that you think you’ll ever reproduce.”

“Don’t be mean, Yang,” Blake chided. “Who’s to say Ruby won’t find love one day?”

“She has to be interested in a type of butt that isn’t attached to a gun for that to happen,” Yang deadpanned.

Ruby scrunched her eyes and stuck her tongue out in her elder sister’s direction. Before Yang could retaliate with a face of her own, Winter burst through the swinging double doors at the opposite end of the hall.

“Ladies, welcome!” she greeted with the biggest smile any of them had ever seen the ice queen attempt, and that included Weiss. “If you look around, you’ll find your names on the place cards in front of each chair.”

Weiss quirked one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “We have assigned seats?” she asked.

“Of course. Proper etiquette requires as much,” Winter explained plainly.

There was no use arguing with her now, and once she realized Ruby, Blake, and Yang were all at her table anyway, Weiss decided to let it go completely. At least Winter knew her well enough to sit her best friends right beside her.

Mere minutes after taking their seats, other guests began arriving. Weiss should’ve remained standing and saved herself the workout that came with getting up in the excitement of seeing a familiar, almost forgotten face, only to sit back down until a new familiar face walked through the ornate entryway and prompted her to rise again.

“Your water’s gonna break,” Yang teased once Weiss resumed her seat for what felt like the twentieth time. “You need to sit down and relax.”

“Those were two of my old schoolmates, Coco Adel and Fox Alistair. I wasn’t just going to ignore them,” Weiss said, though she followed it by gently dabbing at the sweat forming on her forehead with the cloth napkin from her place setting. Maybe she was overexerting herself just a bit.

She genuinely considered taking Yang’s advice, choosing to let the guests come to her for the remainder of the shower, but that was before she realized the next person to walk through the door would be Jaune.

“Hey, snow angel,” Jaune said with a swift kiss to her cheek once Weiss was wrapped in his arms.

“Hi, vomit boy,” Weiss greeted back, smiling against his face as she mirrored his kiss. “What took you so long? You’re one of the last ones here.”

“I got lost. This building is huge,” Jaune said, though Weiss suspected there was more to it than he was letting on. The building _was_ big, she’d give him that, but it was far from a maze. All he had to do was walk straight through the main foyer and he would’ve been fine. There wasn’t really a way for him to _get lost._

 _Whatever,_ she thought with a sigh. He’d made it, and that’s what mattered. Jaune handled Weiss’s chair for her as she sat back down, but then noticed there wasn’t anymore room at their table.

“You didn’t save me a seat?” he asked, giving Weiss the biggest puppy dog eyes she’d ever seen.

“Winter made seating charts,” Weiss explained with a look that told Jaune exactly how she felt about that. “She was just trying to be organized,” she added with a little less annoyance painting her features. “She actually did a decent job of seating everyone by people they’d know.”

Jaune folded his arms across his chest. “Except she forgot to sit _you_ next to _me,”_ he said. He was so irritated that he nearly sounded like he was growling as he spoke.

“I already checked. She put you next to Ren and Nora one table over,” Weiss said, gesturing to the table right behind them. She saw that this news did little to appease him. “Please don’t make a big deal out of this,” she added, looking up at him with her own set of puppy dog eyes. Hers weren’t nearly as pitiful as Jaune’s, but they were enough to convince him to give in without a fight.

“Fine,” he said, relaxing out of his stiff, defensive posture. “But don’t think I’m not going to find some way to piss her off and exact my revenge.”

“Just not today,” Weiss said, a dangerous glint in her eyes daring him not to agree.

Jaune nodded, albeit reluctantly. Goodness knew their lives weren’t perfect, but that wasn’t going to stop Weiss from trying to make that particular day as flawless as possible. Jaune and Winter would have the rest of their lives to hate, bicker with, and one-up each other. That day, however, was all about the baby—and Weiss wanted the baby brought into the world with nothing but love.

Weiss squeezed Jaune’s hand in appreciation, prompting him to bring her knuckles to his lips and grace them with a soft kiss. Weiss hated when he did stuff like that in public—not so much for the risk of being seen now that their relationship was out in the open, but because it always left her wanting more. It took every ounce of her self-control not to push him down on the tabletop and present everyone with a reenactment of their child’s conception. Weiss hoped the shower would be memorable for everyone, but definitely not in that way.

Weiss retracted her hand before her thoughts could get any dirtier, and Jaune finally took his seat. The moment his jeans met the lacy fabric of the chair, Winter approached the podium that had been set up on a stage near the frontmost tables of the hall.

“Good afternoon. I want to thank you all for coming out on this lovely day to celebrate not only my sister, but the life she’ll soon be brining into this world. Nothing is more beautiful than the miracle of childbirth, and nothing could make me happier than hosting a grand event for an even grander event!” she announced. Everyone applauded in agreement. “So, without further ado, let’s start things off with a five-star, five-course meal, brought to you by the best chefs in the western hemisphere!”

Weiss wasn’t sure why this was so surprising to her. After seeing the lengths Winter went just to decorate, she should’ve known there would be a feast to go along with the excessiveness of it all. Men and women dressed in white button-down shirts, black ties, and black slacks burst through the double doors Winter originally emerged from, carrying sterling silver trays lined with salads. After the salads were distributed, out came the soup. After the soup came the quiche, after the quiche came the steak, and after the steak came the cheesecake. Weiss knew she was eating for two, but one lone meal could’ve easily fed three or four. She was thankful she’d opted to wear a dress as opposed to pants as the latter would’ve been much more restricting and unforgiving to her protruding gut, even if they were crafted with the elastic most maternity pants were lined with.

“This is the best baby shower I’ve ever been to,” Ruby concluded after her final bite of cheesecake.

“And it’s only the beginning!” Winter announced via her microphone after overhearing the compliment. “Now that you all are slipping into your food comas, it’s time to play a game!” She told them. “I’m going to pass around a pair of scissors and a roll of caution tape. I want you to unroll the tape until you think it’s the same size as the circumference of my sister’s stomach! Cut it, then write your name on the bottom edge. The person who’s the closest will win a fabulous prize!”

Weiss felt her eyes get as wide as the saucer of the decaffeinated coffee she was in the process of sipping on. She paused with the porcelain rim of the cup pressed to her lips as Winter’s words sank in.

Essentially, everyone was guessing how fat she was.

“What kind of game is this?” Weiss demanded, returning her coffee cup to its saucer with so much force it nearly cracked the delicate dish right down its center with a dreadful _clink._

Yang stood up to get a better view of the mother-to-be’s tummy. “The kind I intend to win!” she declared. “If your sis pulled out all the stops for this venue and the catering, then you _know_ her prizes are gonna be top notch, too!”

Weiss shook her head. “I don’t care what you can win! I don’t want people to know my measurements! Especially not after eating a meal like _that!_ I’m ten pounds heavier than I was when I first walked in here!” she protested.

“Calm down, Weiss. I don’t think any real numbers will be involved,” Blake said. “This is more about eyeballing, since she’s using caution tape as opposed to actual measuring tape.”

Weiss pursed her lips. “I suppose…” she said.

And Blake was right. Once everyone had their strip, Winter brought Weiss on stage to create the tape everyone’s guesstimate would be compared to. One by one, Winter juxtaposed the pieces of tape until she found one that was nearly perfect.

An enthusiastic smile spread across her face, until she read the name written on the caution tape’s edge. “Jaune… Arc…” Winter said through gritted teeth into the microphone.

“Woo hoo!” Jaune cried, triumphantly throwing his fists in the air. “What do I win?” he asked with a shit-eating grin directed straight at Winter.

“All prizes will be awarded at the end of the shower,” Winter said so monotonously, one would’ve thought she was abruptly coming down from whatever crazy sugar high she’d been on since the shower’s start.

For the next game, Winter had the catering staff pass out cups of ice. One ice cube in each cup had a plastic baby barely larger than a thumbnail frozen inside. The point of the game was to melt the ice cube by any means necessary and retrieve the baby before anyone else. Jaune won that one, too.

The game that followed required everyone to wear a pacifier as a necklace. They were then asked to mingle and converse with one another, only they weren’t allowed to say the word “baby.” Doing so would result in forfeiting any and all pacifiers they had to whoever caught them or tricked them into saying the forbidden word. After thirty minutes, Jaune had seventeen pacifiers dangling from around his neck.

“What was the name of that Justin Bieber song… they one that Weiss really hates? Goes something like… _I thought you’d always be mine,”_ Jaune sang.

“Baby!” Ruby yelled with a snap of her fingers. Her excitement for remembering the song was soon washed away by the wave of sadness that came crashing down with her realization that she now had to hand over all of her hard-earned pacifiers. “Dang it, Jaune. You’re too good at this baby shower stuff.”

“You’re lucky you don’t have more pacifiers. You said the B word again,” Jaune teased as he pulled Ruby’s nine pacifier necklaces over his head.

“With a total of twenty-six pacifiers… the winner is… shock, shock, surprise, surprise… Jaune,” Winter drawled.

Jaune was as happy as Winter was peeved, which was the largest contributor to his happiness, Weiss was sure. As much as she loved and appreciated her sister, Weiss couldn’t hide the smile she got from seeing her boyfriend bask in Winter’s sulkiness. It was the closest to getting along the two had come since… well, ever. She couldn’t help but think, _this is how a family_ should _act,_ and then got slightly teary eyed with the realization that her family was expanding in more ways than one.

“Enough with games!” Winter’s booming voice rang through the hall. “It’s time for the main event: the gifts!”

With her announcement, Winter stepped down from the stage and ushered Weiss over to the large table that had been designated for presents. Boxes and bags of all shapes and sizes littered the tabletop, their colors a mix of pretty pastels and eye-catching pinks.”

“I can’t believe you’re having a baby girl!” Ruby squealed as Weiss took a seat in a fancy antique armchair beside the mountain of presents. “Have you decided on a name?”

Weiss looked to Jaune who’d moved to stand beside her with his hand resting on the chair’s wooden crest. “Athena,” he answered, though his eyes remained locked with his girlfriends.

“That’s beautiful,” Blake said with a smile that signified just how much she meant it.

“I love that,” Yang agreed.

“Me, too!” Ruby chimed in with eyes as happy as her lips.

Before Weiss could tear up again, she reached for her first present. Most everyone there had caught wind of her disinheritance and thus spared no expense in splurging on toys, first-time mom essentials, and more clothes than Weiss knew what to do with.

“I don’t think she’ll stay small enough long enough to wear all of these!” she exclaimed after opening Coco’s present of twenty different outfits.

“Just you wait,” Winter warned with a knowing smile. “If she’s anything like you were as an infant, she’ll find ways to soil at least three ensembles a day.”

Weiss felt her cheeks warm with the blush that implication made blossom across her face, and quickly changed the subject by thanking her friend for the thoughtful gift and moving on to the next.

By the end of it all, Weiss and Jaune were the proud owners of a carseat that doubled as a carrier, a fancy-schmancy diaper bag, a deluxe stroller complete with snack compartments and a place to store a fancy-schmancy diaper bag, a breast pump, a Rock n’ Play, a sound machine, an adjustable booster seat, a papoose, more frilly, cute clothes than Weiss cared to count, blankets, and a bottle set for baby that matched a wine glass set for mommy and daddy.

“Last but not least…” Winter said, pulling a light pink envelope out of her jacket and handing it to Weiss. “This is from me.”

Weiss hugged her sister without so much as opening it for she knew she’d love whatever it was even if it wound up being a slip of paper that said **this shower IS your present. Be grateful.** But her expectations were blown out of the water upon finding out its true contents.

“T-twenty-five thousand dollars…” Weiss stuttered. She hadn’t seen such figures in _weeks!_ Although she’d managed to secure a job as a lounge singer for the plaza hotel, it definitely didn’t pay her $25,000. She’d be lucky if she saw that kind of money annually.

Jaune took the check out of the Weiss’s hand to gawk at it himself. “Winter, are you serious?” he asked once his jaw snapped back into place.

“I’ve never really been the joking type, now have I?” she pointed out.

The smile she shared with Jaune just about broke Weiss’s heart. Her hormones couldn’t take all the emotion and she quite suddenly burst into tears.

“For goodness sake, Weiss. It’s not even that much,” Winter said, muffling her sister’s cries against her blazer.

“I know!” Weiss sobbed. “I just… I’m just so thankful… and happy… and glad I don’t have to worry about Athena’s immediate future… I know she’ll be taken care of.”

“Of course she will be,” Winter said, holding Weiss at arms-length. “Because she’s a Schnee, and even if we face adversity, we only rise out of it stronger than before.”

“She’s an Arc, too,” Jaune added with a gentle hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t a challenge to Winter’s words. It was a reminder that Athena was a blend of badasses who could handle themselves through thick and thin. “She’ll be fine. _We’ll_ be fine.”

Weiss held Jaune’s gaze for a moment before turning to look around the hall at the faces of all her friends. Weiss already had so many people who cared about her, and Athena would have just as many if not more. They may not have been related by blood, but so what? Having a blood relation didn’t necessarily signify a loving relationship. Weiss knew that better than anyone.

“Thank you,” she said. “Everyone. Thank you so much.”

“Enough waterworks,” Winter chastised with all the charm of a drill sergeant. “We still have to eat dessert! So dry your eyes and ready your tastebuds for the most delicious strawberry cake you’ve ever tasted!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The day’s events had been draining to say the least. Between the energy it took to meet and greet with so many people and the rollercoaster ride of emotions her hormones sent her on, Weiss was just about ready to collapse as soon as she and Jaune arrived home.

“I’m exhausted,” she declared as she stepped into the apartment. “The second my head hits that pillow, I’m going to pass out.”

“Before you do…” Jaune said, stepping in a few steps behind her with his arms full of their baby shower gifts, “think you can handle one more surprise?”

Weiss turned around and waited for Jaune to set the packages down and close the door so she could look him in the eyes and try to read his expression. “What kind of surprise?” she asked.

Jaune simply smiled and jerked his head in a way that signaled Weiss to follow him before walking down the hallway to what he liked to call “the office,” but was actually a barren room with a desk and a computer chair. At least, it _used_ to be a barren room with a desk and a computer chair. Upon turning on the light, Weiss found the former office completely transformed.

White, blue, and baby pink wallpaper lined the walls. A changing table filled to the brim with diapers, baby powder, and wet wipes was positioned closest to the door. A dresser decorated with silver snowflakes was empty and waiting for all the clothes Weiss was all too eager to see their daughter wear. A rocking chair was tucked away in a corner, ready for any number of bedtime stories. But her favorite thing of all was the white wicker bassinet in the middle of the room’s woven rug.

“When did you have time to do this?” Weiss asked in utter astonishment as she moved closer to feel one of the bassinet’s many soft, satin bows between her fingers. “This wasn’t here this morning,” she recalled, though she did second-guess herself momentarily.

“I _was_ running a bit late,” Jaune reminded her. But before Weiss could point out that assembling everything would’ve taken much longer than the time he spent “running late,” he added, “Winter may or may not have paid for a team to help me out, though.”

And suddenly the world made sense again. “She really didn’t hold back, did she?” Weiss said with a smile, here gaze still transfixed by the hand-crafted cradle.

“She didn’t” he agreed. “And neither will I.”

By the time Weiss finally managed to tear her eyes away from the bassinet, Jaune was already down on one knee.

“Weiss Schnee…” was all he said before her heart stopped working and her stomach dropped right out from under her, baby and all, “you’ve made me happier than I would’ve ever thought possible…” he continued, though he could undoubtedly read Weiss’s stunned expression loud and clear. “I love you. I knew it when I first met you, I know it today, and I’ll know it when I take my dying breath. I _love_ you, and I already know how much I’m going to love this baby.” She knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any less emotional when he pulled a small box out of his pocked and revealed the most dazzling and perfect diamond ring she’d ever seen. “So will you do me the honor… of marrying me?” he asked.

Weiss was already crying for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “Damn these stupid hormones,” she swore. Regardless, she nodded through the tears and outstretched her arms, welcoming Jaune to scoop her up and spin her around, while being very mindful of her belly.

She may not have had her family fortune, but her life was so much richer in other aspects that she didn’t give a damn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge shoutout to AntonSlavik020 for keeping the White Knight commissions coming! This was my first request for something so fluffy, and I absolutely loved writing every soft little word! If you enjoyed, comments are my jam--kudos are my butter ;)


End file.
